In the manufacture of garments, pockets are provided as convenient means for carrying useful items, such as a wallet, a handkerchief, currency, change, keys and the like. Pockets are integrated into the garment and take the general form of a pouch open at one end for easy access to the contents.
Two basic types of pocket construction are used. In the patch-type pocket, a layer or patch of material is attached directly to the outside surface of the garment. The patch pocket is usually sewn only at the side and bottom edges so that articles can be received between the garment and pocket layers through the unsecured upper end. Patch pockets are thus easily constructed and attached to the garment, and are utilized most popularly in garments having less formal or leisure applications. In contrast to the patch-type pocket, the standard pocket is positioned on the inside of the garment. A slot in the garment permits access to the standard pocket. Consequently, the standard pocket occupies a hidden, protected location in the garment, which therefore presents a much neater, finished appearance. The standard pocket is basically constructed by forming a slit in a garment, attaching a pocket bag to the inner periphery of the slot and attaching a prefolded welt across or within the slot. The welt gives the slot a more finished appearance.
Efficient construction of a high quality standard pocket depends partially upon the production of the prefolded welts. The prefolded welts are normally produced by use of a garment welt folding machine. One such garment welt folding machine is the Koenig Model XK-80, sold by Apparel Equipment Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A garment welt folding machine enables an operator to produce the desired longitudinal and transverse folds in a precut piece of welt material by a series of manual and mechanical steps. First, a piece of welt material is manually positioned over a pressboard template. The template has a recessed area with edges corresponding to longitudinal folds to be made in the welt material and a slot corresponding to the transverse folds to be made in the welt material. The welt material is maintained in position on the template by the use of suction applied through holes in the recessed area of the template. Second, the longitudinal folds in the welt material are produced by manually rolling a cylindrical bar along the template over the portion of the welt material extending above the template at the longitudinal edges of the recess. The resulting longitudinal fold is not well-defined. In addition, this procedure is time-consuming, causes operator fatigue and is relatively unsafe for the operator. Third, the transverse folds in the welt material are produced by a plate, with a rectangular cross section corresponding to the cross section of the slot, which is mechanically lowered onto the longitudinally folded welt material. The pressboard template does not provide a well-defined fold.
Therefore, a need has been shown for a garment welt folder which produces prefolded welts with sharply defined folds in an efficient and safe manner.